Mandarin, unlike English, is a tonal language. As an English speaker, I find it difficult to grasp the tones. This illustrates just how different cultures can be.
When we don’t understand a language in its native form and rely on translations instead, meaning and ideological understanding are often lost. Many languages have phrases or colloquialisms that are not easily translated. Additionally, some concepts are hard to translate because of a lack of equivalent words. For example, English has one word for love, regardless of the degree or type of love that is being expressed. In modern colloquial English, love is used to describe positive feelings ranging from favouring a flavour of cheese or hockey team, to the passion and dedication you have for your significant other, or your worship of God. All of these in English use the singular word for love, love. Many languages have multiple words for love. Take ancient Greek for example, which include agape (unconditional love), éros (romantic love), philia (love on a friendship level), philautia (self love), to name a few. From this we can see how it would be easy to misunderstand what is being said about something as crucial as love, when translating from other languages to English. It’s more than just how to translate, but it’s about a lack of cultural understanding. The fact the Greek’s had multiple words for love where we have one, could show how little we value love compared to those who wrote works in Greek, such as the New Testament writers. Some don’t push past the difficult early stages of learning a new language, before giving up, but for those who persevere, there is a great reward. Studies show there are many mental benefits to learning a second language. In my next few Coffee with Chris videos, I want to talk about a few different angles of culture in the Bible, but for this video, the thought I want to leave you with it this: we need to be understanding of one another’s cultures and not assume ours is superior. We all have a natural tendency, especially when we are young, to assume the culture we grew up in is the base point for common thought or action. Put plainly, we think our cultural is “the normal one”. Malaysian comedian Ronny Chieng pointed out in one of his sets, roughly two thirds of the world’s population are Asian. Humourously, he went on to state that (and I’m paraphrasing here to keep it family friendly), “I could drive down the street with my feet on the steering wheel dancing to Gangnam Style if I wanted to, and if all of us did it, guess what? That would become the correct way to drive.” To take it a step further, imagine if everyone in Asia drove this way, how many of us would still feel we set the tone for “normal”. Of course, this is a silly example. But it should make us think, what other things we take for granted as being normal? We can subtly assume our culture does everything “the right way”. This can make us rigid and unwilling to learn about other cultures, or other people. In the news recently we’ve seen how cultures and peoples have been mistreated and misunderstood. Even cultures so close to home. This has resulted in racism and hatred in some people. The Bible calls us to love our neighbours. Part of loving them is trying to listen and understand. And we need to have an open mind that our way of thinking or doing things as we have always done, is not necessarily what is “normal”. Our views on certain things that we may have held for all our lives, may not be the right views. Let’s listen, with humility. In my next Coffee video, I’ll be taking these concepts further, to talk about the culture Jesus was born into. Until, let’s listen and learn about the cultures outside of our own. God bless, Christopher Green
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Chris GreenI'm a children/youth minister who loves God and loves people. I'm doing my part to point myself and others to Jesus. Archives
March 2021
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